Food History

Today I was given the most wondrous thing (thanks, Rosario!).

It’s El gizado Sefaradi, recipes of the Sephardi Jews brought together by Moshe Shaul, Aldina Quintana Rodriguez and Zelda Ovadia, published to celebrate the five hundredth year of a particularly sad occasion that led to some truly remarkable outcomes.

In 1492 Ferdinand and Isabella, in their wisdom, gave the Jews of Spain an ultimatum: convert, leave, or die. The Jews who left enriched the cultures of many countries. The Jews who converted often suffered through their ancestry and some retained their Judaism in secret - their recipes and some of their stories are recorded in one of my favourite cookbooks A drizzle of honey. The complete story of that particular exodus is long and complicated.

The Jews who choose to leave their homes rather than lose their religion or their lives brought to songs and music and stories and their own particular culture to new countries.

Their traditional language was (and still is) descended from Latin and is commonly known as Ladino. Because I’m a Medievalist (history is handy in the most unexpected ways) I can read a bit of it, and so Rosario gave me this book which is a compilation of current Sephardic recipes. They show quite clearly the Spanish origins of these people and the travels they have made through other parts of the Mediterranean.

It isn’t a complete Sephardi cookbook - the recipes seem to me to reflect the European foodways and not those (for instance) of the New World. It’s a gorgeous book, however, and I’m anticipating much pleasure in using it.

Rosario and I translated recipes to each other over tea and coffee this afternoon. Five hundred years on, and Ladino is even closer to Spanish than Yiddish is to German. It’s a pleasure to read. (Or to almost-read, since I have to admit to some strange gaps in my vocabulary.)

This week I’ve been cooking with my cookbook of the Jews of Greece again, because I’m still curious about the Sephardi culture there and the Romaniot. I found a lot of overlap between it and El gizado Sefardi. Rosario found a lot of overlap between the recipes of El gizado Sefardi and the traditional recipes of the region around Madrid. Perhaps European Sephardi cooking distils the best of the Mediterranean cuisines? Or perhaps I’m just beginning to udnerstand how rich and wonderful these cuisines are.

Since I’ve never actually learned Ladino (Djudeo-Espanyol) the likelihood of this translation being inaccurate is quite high. I would welcome any corrections from people who know this dish.

Vinagre

To go with fried eggplant, with eggs or with fried fish.

2 spoons of vinegar
3/4 cup of water
1 teaspoon of tomato paste
1 clove of minced garlic
2 spoons of flour
a pinch of salt

Mix the vinegar with the water in a pot then add the rest of the ingredients. Adjust the flour and make sure the the mixture has no lumps. Put the pot on a low heal and cook until it becomes creamy.

food history, Jewish history, Sephardic foodways, El gizado Sefaradi, recipe, Vinagre, 1492